The Marlins had 4 more players test positive today and it won’t be long before the Texas, Arizona, and California teams are in the same boat. The Marlins already cancelled two more games and they are in a state with the most ignorant governor in the nation, so their season is doomed already.

Jamie - Super cool video! We've been seeing those hummingbird moths more lately.

Jamie was that the moth making the chirping sounds? Almost sounds like a hummingbird.

Richard - the chirping came from a bunch of birds who were also visiting the yard hahaha! I believe it was the small flock of barn swallows that are living over out front door

I see the hummingbird moths every now and then here, too, Jamie.

The Toronto Blue Jays wanted to play all their home games in Pittsburgh. I checked a bunch of cities when the NHL was considering what city to bubble in. Their two best possibilities were .Pittsburgh and Columbus Ohio based on .Ccovid19 cases. they chose Toronto and Montreal because of money and the "fact" that they "own" hockey. I have to admit that I didn't make comparisons since the surges. Pittsburgh told Toronto to play somewhere else. They chose Buffalo.

Today I was able to taste my first Elfin cherry tomato. It was surprisingly good!! Very good! I am very stunned at how good it was!! Even a friend who was here and tasted it exclaimed at how good it was. If you've never grown it, you may want to consider it.

Cindy that one sounds really good to me early and determinate so could grow on the deck...I want to try that one next year.

A couple sunflower pictures for fun

12 more pints tonight

It looks like those of us in TN, MO, and AR will be getting a lot of rain over the next few days

Jamie - yep the storms are due here this afternoon and continuing through Friday morning. I meant to mow my front acre last night but failed. It will have to wait until Saturday unless I can get it done during the noon hour which is the only time I don't have meetings today.

Len - My Elfin plant is about three feet tall now. However, the fruit is not ripening all at once and there are plenty of green tomatoes in all sizes all over the entire plant. Also, they are way too easy to knock off the plant when the fruit is still small and green.

I have it next to a Matt's Wild Cherry and the MWC is already to the top of the Texas tomato cage. I'll take a photo.

Elfin tomato plant photo:

Cindy that Elfin plant is definitely loaded with tomatoes

I saved seed from my Oregon Star tomato last year and it has become obvious that I had a busy bumblebee pollinating my tomatoes. I started seed from both my remaining commercial seed and some of the saved seed. So, I have one plant that is about 3 and a half feet tall, definitely determinate as it should be, and one that is approaching 6' tall! I just spoke with a friend who has a couple of my plants and both are tall. However she kept one of them pruned short and the tomato she picked is nearly seedless, which is one of the characteristics of the OR Star. I'm curious to find out what mine are like!

Oregon Star as it should look:

Richard, it has been a good two days for varmint control! Yesterday we trapped a baby raccoon, I felt kind of bad, but we don't need those guys using our barn as a home. I saw the mother by the trap that morning, so I knew we needed to get her too. This morning we had the mother, and a bonus, the other kit was in the trap with her. Off to the ponds, woodland area they went.

The first youngster:

The duo:

Awesome trapping Lea- you should have a YouTube instructional video on live trapping

Nice catch, Lea!

I'm having a terrible time with deer here. I have a few veggie plants that are not netted or fenced and they are stripping them of their foliage. My golden raspberries, a squash plant, three tomato plants, and my new blackberry plants, Richard. I put additional cages up and have netted the three tomato plants. Tomorrow I'll net the golden raspberry plants. The deer seem to prefer the golden ones to the red raspberries for some reason.

This is day 27 for the month of July with 90 degrees or better so we broke the last record. Tomorrow will also be 90 or better.

Dry cat food! That's the trick for raccoon trapping.

Cindy, deer can be such a nuisance, they're another animal (like raccoons) that people go "oh they're so cute", but not if you're a gardener. My son lives in small town southwest of us and near a large city park. One day he looked out and a doe was walking down the middle of his rather high raised bed browsing away. He has all kinds of fencing now to protect the blueberries, squash, basically everything.

Lea - I am also not a fan of deer. Haven't been for about two decades.

At one point, VA imported deer from PA because they were concerned that the VA population was dwindling. Not any more!! Big mistake!

Cindy, the deer population here is out of control- there are about 6 million whitetail deer and 300,000 mule deer here. I have already hit 3-one totaled the truck I was driving by charging out of deep ditch and directly into front quarter panel at 65 mph. It was a huge 10 point buck and he almost ended up in the front seat with me. It is literally impossible to drive almost anywhere in the state without seeing deer 🦌. Around Austin you will see herds of them, some neighborhoods have a deer in every yard and no population control. Some neighborhoods even have to institute some form of population control in the fall when some bucks get dangerous or eat everyone’s yards and plants. Sometimes the deer don’t even leave in the middle of the day-they just “chill” under the trees 🌲 in the front yard. I guess it saves on gas for lawn mowers lol

Back in the old days there were less than a million in the whole state and then Texans figured out how much money there was in hunting and somehow the population exploded. I have had deer leases where the bag limit was 5 deer and 4 turkeys per year. It is still like that in almost every county around Travis where Austin and many of the major lakes in the area are located.

Black Krims are very nice tomatoes. I hope You get some good ones, Len!

i picked some Tahitian Melon Squash and Delicata squash today

that’s a 12” scale to give you an idea of the size. I’m pleased with them - this is our first year with the Tahitian Melons and second year for Delicata.

oh and my bare feet (I rarely wear shoes at home Hahahaha)

there’s one more Tahitian Melon that will be ready soon

Jamie that is funny, I always get pictures of my bare feet...then I have to take them again. I am basically the barefoot gardener-stepped on a hornet 🐝 the other day-that was no fun.

I have done that also!! Haha

Nice feet! hahaha

We had a deer walk up to DW today while she was yelling and banging trying to chase it away. It got to within 25 feet till it decided to run a few steps back to a safe distance, about 40 feet. I like to see the deer, but I respect them by fencing what I don't want them to eat.

We're having two legged predator problem. Someones going in the garden at night; and then taking the chair I leave tilted over and leaving it right in front of the gate. If it's a joke I don't appreciate it. I don't think it's taking anything, but I don't appreciate having to worry what it's up to. Maybe marking his territory. I got up early yesterday and was ready with a camera. I think I'll give a copy of the picture to the police and let them handle it. May not, might leave it in his door and prop a chair against the door.

John you should set up a bear/human trap. Or stay up all night and scare the crap out of them.

They just sent a Covid-19 Task Force to my home town with 80 additional nurses since the hospitals are full and there are lots and lots of old people here in rest homes

About 6" of rain has fallen here in the last 12 hours and it's still coming down. Lot's of flooding and flash flooding going on. I'm safe here in my bubble. A big limb fell off a dead tree near my house and the top of another tree broke off not far away. No damage done.

I saw that the beans I sowed last weekend are up and it looks like a good stand. I need to put some fencing over them this weekend before the deer make a meal out of the little guys.

Good luck, Jack! We have gotten a couple of showers overnight but not nearly as m as predicted.

John- why in the world would someone do that??

richard- I hope things get better there soon

Just watched a doe and 2 fawns wander through my backyard. I guess they didn't get caught up in the flooding.

John - I'm thinking the same as Jamie. Why would someone do that and why are they even in your garden???

Richard - That's too bad about your increase in Covid cases. Hope they get it under control, soon.

That's a lot of rain, Jack. It started raining here around 6:40 pm yesterday. Just checked my rain gauge. 1.3" so far and it's still raining.

Happy Friday and happy last day of a very hot July! It’s actually raining right now and the temp is a wonderful 76 degrees. I'm actually sitting on my balcony working amongst my plants.

Since we are talking about animals, I saw a fox walking around the pool the other night. I had never seen one before, and when I saw it I was like what the hell kind of animal is that? It sort of looked like a dog but it had a bushy tail and a much crazier walk. It heard me stand up on my balcony and looked up at me... that’s when I knew it was a fox. Then it went on it’s merry way.

My spirits have been lifted this week regarding my garden. I picked my first brandywine and San Marzano tomatoes this morning and my second Cherokee purple.

I finally tasted my first Cherokee purple and as someone who isn’t the biggest fan of tomatoes I can say it was pretty tasty. Had a slightly sweet yet smoky taste. My mom, who is pretty set in her ways with the usual standard red tomatoes, turned her nose up at the sight of a “not red” tomato but tried it anyway and thoroughly enjoyed it. now she’s expecting me to bring more to her.

Unfortunately The other tomatoes that are close to ripening all have some sort of BER on them so those probably won’t be appealing to her. The smaller ones that have just set over this week I’m hoping won’t have that problem.

In other news, my MM76 cuke vine started getting baby cukes on it this week (I guess I just had to wait). My second round of beans are growing nicely. I also started some Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cabbage indoors and they’re getting their first set of true leaves.

Also, I know i keep talking about it, but I’m so ecstatic about how my habanero and fish pepper plants recovered from whatever bug Cindy told me about and helped to get rid of. I can’t thank you enough!

habanero before And after:

Fish pepper before and after:

i do have one question.... how do You solve the problem of a zucchini plant producing blooms but they turn brown and shrivel up before they actually open? I was told that it may have some kind of virus (especially since the Newer leaves are kinda deformed).

Those are happy looking peppers Hab!

I harvested lots of swiss chard this morning, leaving the plants in to come again. We will blanch it and freeze some but it cooks down so far we will eat at least half fresh. I see a bit of color on a Mortgage Lifter tomato in the hoop house...looking forward to having lots of fresh tomatoes.

Jamie and Cindy - I have no idea the reason. I leave a cracked plastic chair in the garden because of my fatigue problem. I tilt it overnight so there's no puddle on the seat when I need it and no bird deposits. There were a few days where I thought something odd about the chair location. Then 3 nights in a row I left it in the same spot leaning against the inside of fence near the gate. The next day, for 3 days, It was sitting in front of the fence which swings in the direction the chair now was.

My suspect has had a problem with two of the neighbors and it gets ferocious. Nails in driveways! One of his victims is a cop in this community; so no self control. The last two days no problem. I think it's time to start chaining the gates, which is a pain as it's a long trip if I forget the key.

My tomatoes may be starting to ripen, I spent a long time staring at one as my impression was there was a slight blush, not sure. And the sweet corn silks are getting brown, so it's garden raiding season! I guess.

Habanero-Rot Stop will cure any BER problem within 2 days. The tomatoes that have BER will even get hard on the bottom, but it is impossible to get rid of the BER on fruits that is advanced. It will however cure any other tomatoes on the plant. I lost maybe 10 tomatoes before I got some earlier this year and I haven't had a single BER fruit after that.

Cindy, I forgot to ask you how your blackberry plants were doing. I know you said that the deer ate the vegetation off the top-are they still alive? I hope your attempts at mitigation are successful

Brazilian Starfish and Fish Peppers

Mini Butternut squash-Corbaci, Sweet Pickle, and Starfish peppers. My squash is starting to dwindle and the one with green on it got broken off my accident.

Texas Grano onion

The last OPP of this season

I agree with Len, Habanero-those barely look like the same plant in the before and after pictures-Cindy knows her stuff.

Park Seed has teamed with Joe the Gardener to do a Podcast. I didn’t know he had a television show.

It was 97 degrees at 10 am today, but only went up a degree since then. The weather channel is pretty lame as far as posting the actual temperature in this area. It always posts temperatures 4-10 degrees below the actual temperature. Even my weather station is 10 times more accurate. I have to watch the local news or an internet 10 day forecast to get the right temperature. The day it was 105 here, I didn’t find out until 9:00 o’clock that night when I watched the news.

“Growing a Greener a world”. I’ve seen a few episodes but I mostly listen to his podcast

Richard - They were doing fine until three days ago when the blasted deer ate all of the tops off the plants. They look like they are still alive. It's been drizzly here all day so I've not been attending to the garden today.

John - What if you hid the key, maybe in a zip lock, under a log or heavy stone near the garden?? You may also want to keep a spare key in the house. Your neighbor sounds like he isn't quite right.

Hab King - Your pepper plants look really healthy now. I'm just glad that I made the correct diagnosis! re: Broad mites.

Cindy - I cut two lengths of chain about 2 feet long with a hack saw. Found two locks w/ matching keys. I figure I'll deal with the forgotten key till the novelty of fresh corn and reallyyyy good tomatoes wears off. DW thinks there's no malice intended, She's probably correct. But with my immune system, I don't appreciate it! Hopefully someone will tell me they've been sitting there admiring the wonderful garden and all the work I've accomplished, and they've been locked out.

John, I'm with you, I'd put a lock on the gate. I too have stared at my tomatoes looking for signs of ripening.

Tonight it was BLT's, an absolute favorite, with my first Oregon Star tomato.Seedless, but not as "dry" as a Roma type.

It is so lovely out on the deck tonight I don't want to go in. I suppose the mosquitoes will make me pay the price tomorrow. Next generation was here to play in lake today and thankfully took some lettuce and chard home. Gave same to neighbor along with a couple of zucchini. I asked her if she wanted a small one, a big one or both and she let me choose so she got both!

August!!! https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5968173/veggie-tales-august-2020

how can it be August already??????